| Steve Litt via plug on 11 Apr 2022 23:11:33 -0700 |
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| [PLUG] Fw: [plug-announce] Tue Apr 12 - PLUG North - "Modern Cobol" by Elizabeth Joseph and Walt Mankowski (7pm EDT online) |
Hi all, Tuesday 4/12/2022 at 7pm Eastern time sharp, Philly Lug (not the Phoenix LUG we usually pair up with) presents on COBOL via Jitsi, https://meet.jit.si/PLUGNorthApril2022 . I might be there. Some facts about COBOL you might not know: * The language has built in indexed sequential files for lightning fast data access. * Many modern COBOLs can interface to many modern SQL databases. * Millions and millions of lines of 40 year old COBOL are still doing their job quite well. Same software, always improving hardware. * All COBOL programs were either abandoned or Y2K retrofitted in the late 1990's, so there are no foreseeable cataclysms coming down the pike. * Although many or most businesses rewrote their software in other languages, some saw the performance of Java, C++, Python, PHP, Perl, Note.js, React, Vue, Rails and the like and said nahhh, I'll just keep updating my COBOL. * COBOL is very, very good at massive data manipulation. * The majority of COBOL programmers are in old peoples' homes or in that great data center in the sky (with GoLUGgers Homer Whitaker and Gary Miller), so there are very few competent COBOL programmers remaining. * COBOL programmers are so needed that companies are training young people to program COBOL on the company dime. * It's not easy to get a COBOL job because the jobs are hidden away, but work at good pay can be gotten by someone somewhat proficient at COBOL and proficient at searching for work. * COBOL has very little Geek Pazazz, so COBOL programmers might have less competition than you might imagine. * COBOL changes very slowly, so it's a pretty good profession for the programmer with other priorities such as kids, spouse and family. * If you're 45 right now, it's conceivable you could learn COBOL and make a living with COBOL until you're in your 70's. I'm not so sure I'd recommend it to a 20 year old. * COBOL stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language, created approximately in 1960. It was made for business. * COBOL has built in sort and merge. This was a very big deal before the mid 1980's, when separate merge programs became cheaper. Unix had a sort program early, I don't know how early. In a big, hairy program, it's still nice to handle this kind of stuff in-house. * COBOL can do recursion: https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/visual-cobol/VC23/VS2015/HHPTCHPTIP12.html * COBOL has a type called "procedure-pointer", which I believe can empower COBOL to use and be used as a callback function: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/developer-for-zos/9.1.1?topic=clause-procedure-pointer-phrase * COBOL now has Object Orientation if you want to use it. * COBOL was created in 1960 or thereabouts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL * In college (1983) I personally created a COBOL program whose input was a COBOL program's source code and whose output was a hierarchy diagram showing all loops, branches, and paragraph calls. SteveT ============================================================== Begin forwarded message: Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2022 19:04:25 -0400 From: Walt Mankowski via plug-announce via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> To: plug-announce@lists.phillylinux.org Subject: [PLUG] [plug-announce] Tue Apr 12 - PLUG North - "Modern Cobol" by Elizabeth Joseph and Walt Mankowski (7pm EDT online) Last minute change of plans! Thanks to the COBOL discussion today, we're going to devote this month's meeting to Modern COBOL. First, PLUG North welcomes back Elizabeth Joseph. Liz is a developer advocate at IBM. She'll be on the call from 7-8 PM to talk about a new report from the Open Mainframe Project COBOL Working Group. Then I'll be giving an encore presentation of a talk I did at PLUG back in 2017 called "Secrets of the dead: What modern programmers can learn from COBOL". For what to expect, Liz says her part will be "not so formal, but chatty". I've got a proper presentation, but it's more about giving a flavor of what programming in COBOL is like vs a formal tutorial. We'll be using Jitsi Meet, a free and open source videoconferencing platform, for the meeting. The meeting will start at 7 PM EDT (2300 UTC). Liz can only stay on until 8 so we'll try to start promptly at 7 this month. You can access the meeting online at https://meet.jit.si/PLUGNorthApril2022 Jitsi Meet also has apps for iOS and Android. If you decide to use one of those apps, use meeting code "PLUGNorthApril2022". On Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 02:39:39PM -0400, Walt Mankowski via plug-announce via plug wrote: > PLUG North will be meeting on Tuesday, April 12, beginning at 7pm ETC > (2300 UTC). The meeting will be online. Details are at the bottom of > the email. > > We don't have a speaker, so this month's meeting will be a general > discussion of all things Linux and Open Source. > > We'll be using Jitsi Meet, a free and open source videoconferencing > platform, for the meeting. The meeting will start at 7 PM. > > You can access the meeting online at > > https://meet.jit.si/PLUGNorthApril2022 > > Jitsi Meet also has apps for iOS and Android. If you decide to > use one of those apps, use meeting code "PLUGNorthApril2022". > _______________________________________________ > plug-announce mailing list > plug-announce@lists.phillylinux.org > http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- > http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - > http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General > Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug